Many medical devices (such as patient monitors, infusion pumps, ventilators, etc.) are configured to generate acoustic alarms. These alarms are usually generated in response to a detected change in the status of the patient or the operation of the device, which may indicate that the patient or device needs urgent attention. Failure to react to an alarm in a timely fashion can therefore jeopardize patient safety.
However; in recent years it has been recognized that when medical devices generate too many acoustic alarms, particularly when many of those alarms indicate non-serious events, medical staff become overwhelmed and “alarm fatigue” occurs. The constant beeping of alarms on patient monitors and other medical devices desensitizes caregivers, causing them to ignore or even disable the sounds that signal that patients may be in danger. Furthermore, the alarm sounds make a lot of noise that is scaring for patients and interrupts their sleep.
Hospitals are therefore being urged to address this serious patient safety issue. One way to mitigate the problem is to reduce or eliminate the generation of acoustic alarms which do not signal a need for urgent action. Ideally, all remaining acoustic alarms will then be medically significant, so it is of the utmost important that these alarms are successful in attracting the attention of medical staff. This can be difficult to ensure in an environment where alarm fatigue has already set in.
Another way to mitigate the problem of excessive alarm sounds in wards is to connect bedside medical devices to remote speakers located outside the ward, but within earshot of medical personnel (for example near a nurses station). The bedside medical devices can then be set to emit alarm sounds through the remote speakers rather than through their own integrated speakers. However, the reliance on a connection to a remote speaker increases the risk of the alarm not being generated properly. This could occur, for example because of a malfunction or incorrect adjustment of the remote speaker, or a failure of the communications link between the bedside medical device and the remote speaker. Furthermore, if several medical devices are connected to the same, or adjacent, remote speakers, concurrent alarms from these devices may lead to one or more of the alarms being drowned out. A similar problem may occur if an alarm is generated during a period when the level of background noise is unusually high.
There is therefore a need for a system which can verify that an acoustic alarm generated by a medical device has been rendered in a sufficiently audible manner.